PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

University of Tlemcen

Faculty of Letters and Foreign Languages

Department of English

Section of English

Style in Translation
A Comparative Stylistic Analysis of The Sand Child by Tahar Ben
Jelloun

Extended Essay Submitted in Candidacy for the Degree of

Masters in Anglo-Saxon Literature and Civilization

Presented by Supervised by

Belkacemi Meriem Prof Ilhem Serir

Benkhedda Sara

Academic Year 2014/2015

Dedication

To my mother, father, sisters, nephews and nieces I would dedicate this humble

work and say that when we are together, nothing is better.

To friends, with whom, time seems endless.

It is not over, until it is all over again.

Belkacemi Meriem
Dedication
I dedicate this work to my parents Abdelkader and Houria Benkhedda I
love you from the bottom of my heart you are the reason of my success, as well
as my sisters Amira and Dikra, for their trustworthiness and encouragement.
You have never failed me thanks to your presence.

To my grandparents Saliha and Abdellah you were always to push me

further, with your sincere prayers and best wishes.

To all my friends who I tortured with my complaints and fears, thanks to

you I advanced slowly but surely enough to complete my work and I will
always be grateful to each one of you.
Acknowledgements:
It is our proud privilege to release the feeling of our gratitude to
several persons who helped us directly or indirectly to conduct this
research work. We would express our heart indebtedness and awe a
deep sense of gratitude to our supervisor Prof. Serir Ilhem for her
sincere guidance and inspiration in completing our project and we
are extremely thankful to her.
Abstract:

The general frame work of this study is a comparative stylistic analysis of

a literary translated work; the use of stylistics as a broad discipline in studying

the significance of style in producing meanings, as well as the reflection of

language as a system of communication in literature. It seems important to use

stylistics in studying the ability of the translator in transferring the stylistic

features of its original equivalence. However, as being interdisciplinary fields of

study, stylistics requires an applied research. The Sand Child is selected because

it is known for its richness of stylistic components. Therefore, its understanding

would be a massive challenge that would probably emancipate the attitude

towards literary studies. A stylistic analysis of a translated literary work The

Sand Child by Tahar Ben Jelloun as opposed to its original can examine the

function of stylistic choices of the author upon his text.

 Table of Content
Dedication1…………………………………………………………..I
Dedication2………………………………………………………….II
Acknowledgment……………..……………………………………III
Abstract…………………………………………………………….IV
Table of Content……………………………………………………V
List of Tables…………………………………………………...….VI
General Introduction…………………………………………..……1
I. Chapter One: Stylistics……………………………..…………….2

I .1 Introduction………………………………………..….………………....3
I.2 An Introduction to Literature…………………….…..……....................3
I.3 Literary Language……………………………….…..……...............…...5
I.4 Literary Awareness…………………………….………….………….…...5
I.5 Stylistics…………………………..………….…………..…………….…6
I.6 Stylistics in the Scope of Linguistics……………………………………..7
I.7 Style and Register………………………..………………………….……7
I.8 Literary Translation…………………………………………………....…8
I. 8.1 Style in Translation………………………………………………..….10
I.8.2 The Transfer between languages: French and English…………..……11
I.9 Conclusion………………………………….……………………..…..…11

II. Chapter two: A Comparative Analysis………………………13

II.1 Introduction………………………………………………………..….....14
II.2 The Aim of the Study……………………………………………...…….14
II.3 An Overview on the Study………………………………………………15
II.3.1 Tahar Ben Jelloun Biography………………….………………………15
II.3.2 Alan Sheridan Biography…………………….………………………..16
II.3.3 The Sand Child Summary……………………..………………...…….16
II.4 Studying Language Use and Style in The Sand Child…………..…..…..18
II.5 Techniques Used by the Translator……………………..…………...…..19
II.6 Comparative Analysis: Original Text versus Translated Text…………...21
II.6.1 Interpretive Resemblance between both Styles.................................23
II.6.2 Interpretive Resemblance in Linguistic Properties............................25
II.7 7 Risks of failure in translation........................................................26
II.8 Interpretative Findings....................................................................27
II.9 Conclusion.....................................................................................28
Bibliography....................................................................................29
General Conclusion...........................................................................30
List of Tables:
Table 1: A Comparison between French and English Alphabetic symbols with their phonetic
transcription..............................................................................................................................22
Table 2: Resemblance of Utterances between Original and Translated Text.........................23

Table 3: Resemblance of Structures between Original and Translated Text……………...24

General Introduction:

Throughout our academic years, we have conducted our studies with literature; our
deep desire to study literature advanced us to increasingly explore all the different layers of
this entity. Step by step, literature seems to be a vast domain that needs great attention to all
its dimensions. Along our studies, we have been devoted to the understanding of literature
encouraging our personal interpretation. On the way to find out what can assist our ability to
comprehend literary works, we encounter a new term that seems to bring some help; it is the
so-called stylistics. This research paper presents a theoretical framework for much
understanding to this new discipline and continues to develop to its relationship to other fields
of study; one of them is linguistics as an access to their apparent relevance and combination.
It explores the collaborative efforts of both stylistics and linguistics in creating a systematic
analysis of literary texts; when linguistics mostly deals with the form of language, stylistics
concerns with the function of this form; and literary translation for the requirement of our
research. Hence, the key word of this research paper will be STYLE. In order to achieve a
good level of analysis, a literary work has to be chosen; for much consideration, we chose
translated work. In fact, we believe that a translated work can place us in position that enables
us to figure out the effects of stylistic features on literary understanding. More simply, If we
could see translated text in the eyes of its original it would be easy for us to grasp the stylistic
functions upon texts.

The First chapter provides a theoretical review of thematic concepts to understand the
nature of language use in literature. It attempts to underline the significance of literature in
language studies answering a crucial question which is to what extent literature could serve
theorists in studying the whole language. Then, this chapter moves around literary translation;
its theories and regulations. Further, it highlights the role of the translator in transferring the
stylistic features of the original text.

The second chapter is more practical; hence, it is an analytic research that proposes the
literary translated work entitled The Sand Child; written by Tahar Ben Jelloun and translated
by Alan Sheridan. This chapter is set in the form of comparative analysis to testify the
possibility of the translation process in transmitting the stylistic features of a given work. We
claim that this kind of study would answer our hypothesis which is; the transferring of the
meaning embedded in stylistic features of the original text may be achieved through the
success of the translator in reserving the original style. This final result of this study indicates
a new strategy for stylistic studies which will help in make considerable gains in both
stylistics and literary translation.
 Chapter One
Stylistics

I .1 Introduction………………………………………..….………………....3
I.2 An Introduction to Literature…………………….…..……....................3
I.3 Literary Language……………………………….…..……...............…....5
I.4 Literary Awareness…………………………….………….……………...5
I.5 Stylistics…………………………..………….…………..…………….…6
I.6 Stylistics in the Scope of Linguistics……………………………………..7
I.7 Style and Register………………………..………………………….……7
I.8 Literary Translation…………………………………………………....…8
I. 8.1 Style in Translation………………………………………………..….10
I.8.2 The Transfer between languages: French and English…………..……11
I.9 Conclusion………………………………….……………………..…..…11
I.1 Introduction:
Over the last decades, the debate over the study of language through the medium of
literature has been over emphasised. In fact, it has been always a subject of discussion for
many reasons as many scholars do not consider the language used in literature and do not see
any benefited contribution from such study. However, others still believe in the crucial
effectiveness of this material as being good model of any language. Hence, tremendous efforts
have been exerted to confirm the significance of literature in studding language. Besides, the
aim was to find out the most effective methods and approaches to better exploitation. The
question has been arisen is how literature can be highly appropriate in assisting language
studies representing the language it embodies. As a result, a newly emerged methodology has
been embedded with literary translation and that has been developed as a reaction to what has
been discussed above which is stylistics. This chapter is set to introduce this field of study
providing general overview on the theories and practices of stylistics and its deep
entanglement with other disciplines. Moreover, the chapter opens a fascinating debate over
the usefulness of stylistics in studying a translated work of literature. More precisely, it seeks
to elaborate the value of stylistics as an approach in defining a better understanding of a
literary text and that would be a door way to what second chapter will deal with. This chapter
explores many concepts and definitions to clarify all the ambiguity that surrounds the research
aim and that cooperates in finding solution to fascinating questions.

I.2 An Introduction to Literature:

The use of literature in the study of language encapsulates an active dispute as being
divided between those who ignore the proficiency of literature and those who believe in the
role of this authentic material can play in enhancing language understanding. At this level,
Khatib views that literary texts introduce more complex language that has more challenging
materials that can be motivating and fruitful on the linguistic level (2004:4). Meanwhile,
Simpson explores the same idea and assures that: “By looking to closely at what writers are
doing linguistically textual analysis is presented as productive means of encouraging
awareness about English language” (1997:preface). Literature is regarded as the highest form
of expression since the author creams off the language’s best usage.

In the view of Thomson, the importance of literature lies in making language studies
involved with the history of language due to the common culture and history literature
embodies. He claims that: “Literature would mean writing in which something distinctive and
stinking about the style lends it a quality which goes the communication of information”
(2010:9). Literature means more than a combination of words; it carries meanings and
information that go beyond telling stories.

The features of language illustrated representing in literature have been the concern of
study by many language researchers over many countries all over the world. They basically
seek to investigate what literature serves as being a rich form of expression that demands a
careful analytic study; this what Irvin states as he declares that: “Identifying the ‘wholeness’
or ‘harmony’ that literary texts achieved, and in which their moral lesson lay, required careful
analyses of the structure and imagery of a poem, or the characterization and narrative point of
view of a novel” (2010:21).
The specialness of literature is generally agreed to be a ‘higher usage of language’
since it is always carefully constructed. Actually, literature presents the author’s mastering of
language. Thus, it is impossible to neglect or illuminate this aspect of language; yet, it is
important to understand language used in literature to easily manipulate language as a whole
as Simpson explains it: “if looking at what writers do leads to a better understanding of
language, then knowing about language is an extremely effective way of finding out about
what writers are doing” (1997:5). What is meant to say that understanding language use in
literature is a way to understand what language might offer to its users in order to express
meanings; that special use of language in literary texts is referred to as literary language.
Thomson proposes that literary texts differs from non literary texts in the way that:
“Literature seems to move freely, in such ways, between real and represented worlds, truths
and imaginations, and it is not surprising that playful and provocative writers have written
works which tease at the boundaries, taking advantage of literature’s licence to
deceive”(2010:7). He asserts that the fact we are in front of ‘factual or fictional’ work, “we
are clearly not relying on a distinction between fact and fiction” (2010:8). He believes that the
literary form of such works is what engages reading more than their truthfulness. In addition,
he maintains the idea that: “literature is writing which is concerned with giving pleasure,
through attractive form and expression, as much as with the communication of information.
This directs our attention away from the content of the written work (‘is it factual or
fictional?’) and towards its form (‘how is it written?’)” (2010:8). Literature fiction does not
ban the critic to have a false sense of the language achievement in all the directions of the
work.
I.3 Literary Language:
As far as literature concerns, a great emphasis is placed on its distinctive forms of
language. One of the key questions is whether literature has language of its own. Some agreed
that literary language is basically a part of the whole language and that “is difficult to make a
linguistic distinction between literature and the rest of the language” (Short and Candlin; cited
in Simpson.1997:6). It is strikingly impossible to not consider literary language as a massive
representation of language. Simultaneously, Simpson continues and clearly asserts that:
“Denying the existence of literary language as a discrete category of language might seem
like the debunking of literature as a discipline.” (1997:5). Hence, it is quite obvious that the
rhetorical and the aesthetic aspects that give literature its distinctive quality is somehow
neglected by some theorists.
On the other hand, stylistics prefers to work on literary language more than non
literary language as being more deviant and to investigate the style and stylistic variations
across texts in order defines the literary language aspects. Zynger confirms this point that:
“literary discourse is seen as a complex and multilayered language event” (2014:530).
According to Fabb: “A literary text tends to differ from a nonliterary text in two fundamental
ways relating to form: in having specialized kinds of constituent structure, and in having
‘difficult form,’ form which is not straightforward to ascertain”(2009:2).
After assessing the great variety of language features existed in literary language,
literary language is becoming more recognized by theorists, this what Simpson confirms that:
“There is no such thing as a 'literary language'. That is to say, there are no items of modern
English vocabulary or grammar that are inherently and exclusively literary. It is impossible to
identify or isolate any linguistic feature that will automatically confer a 'literary' status on a
text” (1997:9). From here, literary language starts to gain much interest.
I.4 Literary Awareness:
Early theorists tended to view literature as an opaque entity and doubted the
effectiveness of literature and what can be gained or lost by studying it. The author’s freedom
to select non standard linguistic forms and ambiguous patterns in his writing create a sort of
problem and inability to grasp such use of language. As a result, many researchers introduce
the so called ‘literary awareness’. It is important to shed the light on the literary awareness
around the circle in which the use of language is being put. Bakhtin strongly believes that the
choices made by authors should be overestimated in order to determine the stylistic effects of
choosing one form or another. Besides, the perspective focused on literature shifts from an
intrusive entity that is regarded as an additional component that has no clear benefits, passive
reading, to the interaction of literature and reading for the making of meaning; that is the
active reading. (2004:4)
The major transformation in the perspective that literary language shapes the whole
language gradually shifts from a negative attitude towards to a more positive one. Nigel Fable
opens the debate attempting to develop an important hypothesis that is: “Literary language is
governed only by rules and constrains which are available to ordinary language, and which
refer only to representations which are present in ordinary language” (2009; 1221). Then, he
moves further and picks up the differences between the literary and ordinary language. One of
the main his finding is that: “Literary language is altered if it looks in part like ordinary but
has changed in way not possible in ordinary language” (2009;1223). The question is what is
special about literary language and that fascinates a lot of researchers despite the fact that
literary language is only a depiction of ordinary language. Even more, why many linguists
and researchers deny the role literature represents language. All these questions and others
have caused the bringing out of stylistics.
I.5 Stylistics:
The study of literature as a defined style which represents the language has received a
significant attention. “The last two decades have seen increasing confidence in the field of
stylistics, alongside institutional power shifts according greater prominence to English
language studies”(Carter.2014:117). The key element is at promotion one of the most
successful applications that bridge the link between the linguistic form and the literary effects
of a literary text on the general understanding of language. As regard to its interest to the
style, this study has been referred as ‘stylistics’. Stylistics is generally described as the
scientific study of styles moving from the ‘cold’ treatment of literary texts mainly by linguists
to a vivid analysis to grasp the stylistic features chosen by author an its emphasis on the
general interpretation. In many respects, stylistics examines linguistic properties such as
phonological, syntactical and lexical of literary text and how they manage to affect the general
meaning.
Along similar lines, Ogunsiji views that: “Stylistics requires the use of traditional
levels of linguistic description such as sounds, form, structure and meaning. It then follows
that the consistent appearance of certain structures, items and elements in speech utterances or
in a given text is one of the major concerns of stylistics” (2013:2). Literary language has a set
of typical features and unlimited possibilities of stylistic variations that may enrich language
studies or simply as “to do stylistics is to explore language and, more specifically, to explore
creativity in language use” (Simpson.1997:6). It might be noted that stylistics is of
considerable value being faced to a language that combines multiple choices of styles,
registers, and rich vocabulary; all gathered to create and perform information.
Mikhail Bakhtin turns the discussion to another level and identifies the assessment of
stylistics as a collaborative approach as confirms that: “Every grammatical form is at the same
time a means of representing reality. Thus, every one of these forms must also be considered
from the standpoint of its inherent representational and expressive potential, that is, their
stylistics must be elucidated and evaluated” (2004:13). Bakhtin complains that a mere linguist
analysis may fail to discuss the addressed knowledge in language use. I.e. stylistics offers
great deal of knowledge of the language.
Turning to Simpson’s views, he defines stylistics as: “a method of applied language
study which uses textual analysis to make discoveries about the structure and function of
language” (1997:2). Then, he considers stylistics as a confusing matter that is still opened to
conflicting debates as he explains the following: “To say so suggests that stylistics is a
thoroughly depersonalized activity in which the analyst is somehow removed from the
analysis, exerting no influence or control over it. The texts simply self-select and the
discoveries made about them have nothing at all to do with the goals, beliefs and
preconceptions of the stylistician” (1997:3). In fact, he declares that stylistics does not accept
‘subjectivity’ and ‘impressionism’ of its practitioner.
1.6 Stylistics in the Scope of Linguistics:
Having considering the crucial role played by linguistics in studying language for the
last decades, scholars have found that one cannot study the different forms of language
without considering its stylistic significance. Simpson also argues that: “Stylistics is a method
of applied language study which uses textual analysis to make discoveries about the structure
and function of language” (1997:6). When linguistics deals with the normality of language as
a subject of study, stylistics tend to study language in literature, it seems that stylistics is more
interested with a language that is spoken by real persons and represents real experiences
which makes language more expressive.
From a starting point, linguistics and stylistics have a lot of points in common, it is
obvious that stylistics does not look at language the same way linguistics does. However,
stylistics applies most of linguistics’ theories and principles in analyzing literary language.
This what Fabb discusses in his article believing that: “Alternatively, literature might serve
linguistics by offering the literary text as evidence for generalizations about a particular kind
of language: the language of literature”. (2001:1)
It is necessary to point that the key element of stylistics is to examine the linguistic
features of a text. However, stylistics goes beyond that and search to convey the function of
this linguistic choices that style fulfills and eventually influence the general interpretation.
Therefore, the practitioners of stylistics start with the syntactical construction and the
semantic deviation employed to create meanings and then move to other linguistic aspects to
accomplish their analysis. Besides, “Linguistics might put itself at the service of literary
studies by offering to analyze the underlying linguistic system which is instantiated in a
specific text” (Fabb.2001:1).The aspects of complex sentences and deviated utterances
literature contains are appropriate for linguistics the same as literary critics.
On the other hand, the forgoing discussion implies how literary texts can serve as a
model for linguists to study a wide surface of language with its various styles and registers.
There are many arguments that claim that literary text would be interesting field of study for
both major areas of linguistics which are ‘pragmatics’ and ‘discourse analysis’. Taylor and
Francis findings lend support to the claim that these three branches have a lot in common
since they investigate the nature and formal structure of language in use. In fact, pragmatics
might be an important component in stylistic analysis as it studies the meaning as it is
communicated in social context; and thus, it regards literature as a good example to reach the
purpose. Accordingly, stylistic practitioners mainly use pragmatic basis to explore how
inferences could made about what is written in order to arrive at an interpretation to intended
meaning.
In similar lines, stylistic argues that the theories newly achieved in discourse analysis
can be applied. Discourse analysis stands for a set of relations of communication between
people who communicate in favor of language use. It seeks to produce different
interpretations and explanations of that area of social discourse. Therefore, stylisticians
believe in the great role discourse analysis could play in their understanding of the social
conditions of the text analyzed.
I.7 Style and Register:
One of the most based grounds of literature is the so called register. Actually, literature
might be considered as a register in itself. A register that is used in literary text is carefully
adapted by the author to suit the topic and refer to perceived attitude. By that token, Simpson
expresses that register is “a valuable term which links variations in language to variation in
situation” In similar views, he claims that register is the perfect example of language use that
can provide a huge variety of language variation. Hence, he defines register as “fixed patterns
of vocabulary and grammar which regularly co-occurs and is conventionally associated with a
specific context. (1997:11)
Style could be totally different term that Ogunsiji explains it as the following: “The
concepts of style and stylistic variation in language are based on the general notion that within
the language system, the content can be encoded in more than one linguistic form” (2013:2).
As to refer to the writer’s distinctive vocabulary choices, the literary style is often understood
as the selection of certain words or phrases that become peculiar to specific writers. Style also
has impact upon word choice that is seen as the mark of quality of the written language.
(Ogunsiji.1997:3)
Register and style are major terms for stylistic studies that are very effective in
carrying message. They are both a mere purposeful choice of the author to deviate from the
norms of language and “stylistics helps to identify how and why a text has deviated”
(Ogunsiji.2013:3). Bakhtin describes a successful understanding of literature through
“carfully weighing the stylistic appropriateness and expedience of one or another form”
(2004:4).
I.8 Literary Translation
The word translation means the process of recreating a form of speech written or oral
in another language different from its own for many purposes. All needed is a wealth of both
languages and other important elements. The translator is the one who practices this process;
he is supposed to master both languages and to be highly skilled in reproducing the intended
meaning. However, while talking about rewriting literary works, it becomes more demanding
task and might foster an inconclusive debate; this process is referred as literary translation.
The utility of literary translation has been the subject of discussion from the rise of this
process. Eugene A. Nida is one of the theorists who devote their studies in the favor of this
field of study. Hence, most of this part of the chapter would be based and focused on his
findings of literary translation.
From the beginning, Nida stresses that: “translation is also obviously an art in
somewhat the same sense that great literature is always a matter of language art” (2006:6).
Literary translation is referred to the process of the transferring of message from one language
to another. Furthermore, the premise of literary translation expands the transmission of words
from one language to another to construct a translated work. It runs around the circle of
recreating works of art as Gentzler clearly affirms that: “Translation is less seen as ‘carrying
on’ of the content, but as a ‘carrying on’ of the content in language. In translation, texts are
reborn, given new life, stimulated with new energy” (2001:29). This involves the personality
of the translator that is supposed to be seen in his new production of a literary work.
For the matter of fact, sensitivity towards languages involves more attention as far as
regulation to literary translation. Many have found that this process must be controlled under
certain degree of systematic theoretical study. As a result, many theories have been suggested
in order to fulfill a faithful transferring. Nida and Taber propose the following theories.
The wealthy knowledge of the translator of both languages is, by no means, sufficient
since he is required to respect the ‘genius’ of the language. Each language dissociates from
others through many elements such as: word-building, unique patterns, techniques of bringing
clauses into sentences, discourse types as well as the richness of vocabulary for the area of
cultural focus and the specialties of people; these must be carefully considered by the
translator.
Nida and Taber also mentions the urgent need of the translator for keeping the content
even if he has to change the form and that “anything can be said in a language can be said in
another unless the form is an essential element of the message” (2003:7). Plus, they clarify
that the translator has to keep the meaning as it is understood by the writer and that if “the
translation is not adequate, for anything which does not communicate the precise meaning of
the original is a distortion” (2003:6). It is worthy to mention that those theories are only to
provide a systematic sense to this study; yet, it does not impose translator certain methods or
instruction. Theories are put forward to enhance the translator ability to produce a faithful and
adequate literary text; however, it does not mange to offer solutions to issues encountered. It
is the translator’s role to manipulate the text and solve translating problems.
Simultaneously, Jim and Nida introduce three approaches that are mostly selected by
translator in their process of translating. Firstly, they mention the ‘restrictive approach’; an
approach that is merely interested in giving an adequate translation of the grammatical
construction, they clearly state that this approach may cause artificial adequacy. Then, they
suggest another approach that is a linguistic; an approach that seeks to compare between the
source language and the target language at the linguistic level in order to determine the
function of such construction.
The third approach lies on quite different surface since it compares the interpretation
of both receptors; it attempts to form a translation based on the interpretation and the
responses of the source language in comparison to those of the target language.(2006:21-24)
 A literary translation can be highly challenging task. In fact, whether it is fact-based or
not, literary text is more expressive than it is informational. It has a set of typical features and
specific use of language mainly different dialects and registers. While translating, many
elements must be taken into account like what Jin & Nida refer as the sub-codes of the
language as they represent the different levels of language including the formal, informal and
intimate language (2006:37). In similar views, Paul argues that: “when a translator works, he
or she dredges up expressions, Interpretations, vocabulary and insight from a host of
subconscious pools language and experience” (2009:2). The translator does not only
reproduce a literary work, he goes beyond the limits of language searching for the buried
under the accumulation of words.
One of the central tasks of the translator is to achieve a sense of adequacy and
equivalence between the source text and the target text; not only in the subject of content but
in the decoding of style and its impact over the general ideas. Consequently proclaims that:
“When literary works are translated, the translator’s job is to recreate this work of art
sensitively and seamlessly in such a way that it is true to the original, as well as being equally
enchanting, poetic and perspective. A translation should have the same virtues as the original,
and inspire the same response in its readers” (2009.1). It would be quite interesting if the
translator does maintain the same linguistic and stylistic features of the original as far as
the message translated would be interpreted by the translated audience as the as the original
addressed audience.
On the other hand, Nida and Taber think that “the priority of the audience over the
forms of the language means essential that one must attach greater importance to the forms
understood and accepted by the audience for which a translation is designed than to the forms
which may possess a longer linguistic tradition or have greater literary prestige” (2003:31).
This involves the qualifications that the translator must have in order to be able to handle such
situations.
Besides his wealthy linguistic background, the translator needs to be highly skilled in
both cultures, well-informed by translator theories and studies and more importantly he must
be aware of the stylistic and linguistic aspects of that language and the author’s decision upon
his texts and its impact on the general understanding.
I.8.1 Style in Translation:
Going back to the essential axis of this chapter, style stands right at the front back of
the translating process. As a bridge between the original and the translated texts, style is
considered as more demanding task. It is generally agreed that the author’s style has to be
overestimated by the translator. Over many theorists, there is a conflicting debate over the fact
that stylistic significance of any given work ought to be found in the translated work. In order
to take this study beyond the mechanical level of transferring meanings, Nida and Taber find
that: “To be quite misleading, a translation may also be so stylistically heavy as to make
comprehension almost impossible” (2003:4); without forgetting that Nida and Taber adopt the
priority of meaning transmitting over the form.
As controversial opinions, Maher strongly admits that “the first advocates of a
translation free enough to respect the spirit of an original passage, or piece of oratory, but
accurate enough to respect style” (1999:56). He obviously portrays respect in the translator
efforts to keep the style of the original author.
Style is what ties author with his writings and what makes his voice clearly heard.
Maher ensures that the translator would not stretch beyond the author’s originality and
creativity as he firmly states that: “I would like to add that I have no sympathy with the view
that the mere fact of transporting a work across cultures gives the translator the right, always
and inevitable, to the status of ‘second creator’” (1999:58). Even in the most difficult
situation, the translator ought to be faithful to the creativity of the author.
I.8.2 The Transfer between Languages: French and English:
Language transfer is the transfer of linguistic features between languages; it has a lot
to do with literary translation since both work to find equivalent repertoire of language in
another. Odlin stresses on the bilingual accuracy of language transfer which occurs when
speakers or writers transfer items and structures providing their equivalent in another
language. It seeks to reformulate cross linguistic attachment between two languages in terms
of words order, syntax and grammatical structures. (1989:125)
Salkoff considers that: “The major efforts in this comparative grammar is to express
the translational relation between French and English grammatical structures as formal rules,
without attempting to assign an absolute meaning to any structure” (1999:15). There is an
alternative strategy in which the transfer activity is associated with the historical background
of languages. For instance, French and English are typically associated to each other, the
equivalence between them at many linguistic levels go back to the historical record that link
both of them.
Transfer has become a relevant conception to literary translation. As far as the transfer
between French and English concerns, literary translation has been discussed. The
intelligibility between English and French may facilitate the process of translation because of
the lexical similarities and resemblance of syntactical structure. The transfer between English
and French has the effect of concentrating attention on the semantic adequacy between
utterances that seem to be the like as an example the word ‘comprehensive’ or the word
‘actual’; these words are commonly used in both languages and can be understood by both
users though they stand for complete different meanings.
Language transfer does not imply the facility it seems to, it can be more progressive
activity that leads to strong misconceptions. Even if the two languages hold the same
fragrance, it requires a deep study of every piece of language system.
I.9 Conclusion:
This chapter was to give an idea about literature as an important component in
language studies. It went further and raised the question that how literature could be useful in
studying language, what literature can serve as a model that shape the language it expresses.
The shape of the chapter was a detailed clarification of the integration of literature in
language studies showing the various possible attitudes towards such step. Yet, it seems quite
strange to deal with literature without studying the specialness of the literary language and the
specific language use in literature.
All what have been mentioned above was like a foregrounding to the key concept of
this research paper which is stylistics. The first part of the chapter concerned with defining
this concept and tried to obtain a general overview on this field of study. However, the
interdisciplinary nature of this study required attention towards the study of the relationship of
stylistics with other disciplines. One cannot deal with stylistics without referring to linguistics
and its sub-studies.
In order to accomplish the aim of this study, this chapter moved to another field of
study which is literary translation. Literary translation has been a matter of fascinating debate
over the ability of this process to make different audience attached with a literary work that is
written in another language and could be addressed to different audience. This means that any
simple account of shifting the author’s particular assessment is doomed to failure.
One of the requirements of the translation is to keep the stylistic features as well as the
linguistic ones in order to achieve a faithful translation. This leads to the important question
which to what extent could the translator be successfully able to transfer the stylistic
dimensions of the text without neglecting the meanings embedded in the style choices. As a
result, the second chapter would be a practical study that mostly attempts to find the possible
answers to such questions.
 Chapter Two
A Comparative
Analysis
II.1 Introduction………………………………………………………..….....14
II.2 The Aim of the Study……………………………………………...…….14
II.3 An Overview on the Study………………………………………………15
II.3.1 Tahar Ben Jelloun Biography………………….………………………15
II.3.2 Alan Sheridan Biography…………………….………………………..16
II.3.3 The Sand Child Summary……………………..………………...…….16
II.4 Studying Language Use and Style in The Sand Child…………..…..…..18
II.5 Techniques Used by the Translator……………………..…………...…..19
II.6 Comparative Analysis: Original Text versus Translated Text…………...21
II.6.1 Interpretive Resemblance between both Styles.................................23
II.6.2 Interpretive Resemblance in Linguistic Properties............................25
II.7 7 Risks of failure in translation........................................................26
II.8 Interpretative Findings....................................................................27
II.9 Conclusion.....................................................................................28
Introduction:

As literary translation continues its development as a mass of controversial process,

the assumption that that literary translation is of value and should be preserved has resulted
generation of theoretical and empirical studies and efforts to develop methods and strategies
by which literary translation can be supported and expanded. Besides, considering the effects
extended on behalf of this mainstream of literary translation to reach the adequacy and the
equivalence is highly demanded; many researches were conducted to access the effectiveness
of such process in recreating a work of literature into another language and develop further
insight to it. This chapter is an analytic framework primarily to examine the translation
strategies used by the translator to transfer the stylistic features of the original text to the
target language text. By clearly defining his/her ultimate task, the translator needs to transfer
the various aspects of the text expressed by a specific use of language determining the original
author’s choices and its effects on the lexical cohesion of his text. However, a problem would
be putted in half with a precise formulation of the problem that will clearly indicate the aim of
the research paper. The first chapter was a clear attempt to clarify the role of the style chosen
by the author in carrying meanings and the significance of stylistics for better understanding.
Moreover, it was set to fill the gap in the prevailing knowledge that possibilities of
determining the stylistic features of any text and most importantly in a translated text in which
one can apparently investigate the impact of the style on the understanding. Meanwhile, this
study tends to test the ability of the translator to depict the stylistic features of the original text
and then successfully transfer it in the target language. In a way to investigate what has been
claimed, an analytic data must be approached.

II.2 The Aim of the Study:

The dynamics of language that constitute the linguistic and stylistics aspects and their
interaction with one another in the prevailing understanding of the literary text would become
crucially shown if one can place it as opposing to another language. That is to say, if one may
study the information loaded in literary text written in one language as opposing to the same
information yet expressed in another language investigating its adequacy, understanding the
role played by the use of style by the author would become easier and more sufficient. Thus,
In order to determine the requirement of our study, a translated work of literature is to be
suggested. Simultaneously, the objective of the study is to examine the ability of the translator
to transfer the stylistic features of the original text. This study will see style as referring
primarily to the style of the translator, using the original text for purposes of comparison.

II.3 An Overview On the Study:

The Sand of Child is a novel by the Moroccan author Tahar Ben Jelloun written in
French language, first published in France in 1985 and then translated to English by the
translator Alan Sheridan. Ben Jelloun’s story offers a unique window into the everyday life of
ordinary people in a Muslim Arabic world unfiltered by Muslim oriental sensibilities. This
mixture of cultures and languages enormously leads to a suggestive discussion. More
honestly, the fact of being Arabic North African whose second language is French for many
considerations and who are specialised in English literature and civilisation, we believed in
what this literary translated work can provide us with all the knowledge needed to understand
the translation process and its construction. Meanwhile, it seems a little bit easier to grasp the
choices of the author over style and its possible significations all along the interpretation of
such work. On the other hand, we feel that this kind of stylistic analysis of the translated work
in contrast with its original one would doubtfully be more significant than any other translated
works since it is highly loaded with linguistic and cultural items that are more related to
Moroccan Islamic community such idioms, simple and local terms. All these must
prominently help us to turn up our hypothesis.

II.3.1 Tahar Ben Jelloun Biography:

Born in Fes in 1944, the international recognized Moroccan writer, essayist, poet and
playwright Tahar Ben Jelloun started writing in1971 firstly poems; after he finished studying
philosophy at Mohamed V University in Rabat. When he moved to France where he received
a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Paris in 1975; in 1976 he wrote a
novel based on his research La Réclusion Solitaire. Later he wrote a lot of imaginative radical
critique novels of colonization, human rights and immigrations of North Africans to France.
However, it was not until L’Enfant de sable (The Sand Child), published in France in 1985,
an imaginative, richly drawn novel that critiques gender roles in Arab society that Ben
Jelloun was obtained widespread praise and recognition. The success of his books include
Jour de silence a Tanger (1990; Silent Day in Tangier), Les Yeux baissés (1991; With
Downcast Eyes), Le Racisme expliqué à ma fille (1998; Racism Explained to My Daughter)
and others marks the coming of age of genre of Moroccan writers who tackle the Moroccan
novel; that are often juxtaposed with existential narratives of the search for personal and
moral freedom in a taboo-laden society. The sand Child is one of his famous works that is
translated into many languages including English by the translator Alan Sheridan in 2000.

II.3.2 Alan Sheridan Biography:

Alan Sheridan was born in Britain, in 1934 and lived in France for five years where he
worked as English assistant. Sheridan is a recognized writer and translator since he translated
over fifty books, mostly from French to English and vice versa. He has received the Prix du
rayonnement de la langue française by the Académie Française as an honour for his
contribution to the French literature after translating the Sand Child written by Tahar Ben
Jelloun. He has been also a regular contributor to the London Magazine, the London Review of
Books and the Times Literary Supplement. He published many novels such as Vacation,
published in 1972 and The Will to Truth (1980).

II.3.3The San Child Summary:

The Sand Child is a post colonial novel set in Morocco where Ben Jelloun adopts the
Arab tradition in storytelling. The novel is a kind of trilogy that narrates the story of
Ahmed/Zahra by a story teller who claims to have the diaries of the hero Ahmed “the secret
was there, in those pages, woven out of syllables and images. He entrusted it to me just before
he died”. (5); however, the voice of Ben Jelloun is still heard when he seems to know all the
hidden truths of the story and the characters.

The novel opens with the image of a Moroccan old man Hajji Ahmed who is
expecting the birth of his eighth sons. In fact, he is quite frustrated since he knows in his
depth that the newly coming born will be a girl like his seven daughters. Thus he decided that
the eighth born will be a boy no matter happens. He declares that “the child to be born was to
be a male even if it was a girl!”(12); this is how the destiny of our heroin Zahra 1(Ahmed) just
meant to begin with such decision even before her birth. Actually, the eight-born was a girl
and his father and mother decided to introduce him to the world as a boy named Ahmed. Ben
Jelloun explains the action of Hajii Ahmed to be afraid from the lost of his wealth after his
death that will be inherited by his brothers as the Islamic laws state. Accordingly, Zahra will
be raised as a young man according to all the privileges granted for men in a patriarchal

1
The hero is often referred as Ahmed rather than Zahra. We claim that it will be fair to give Zahra the
right to be a female in our estimation the same how she is created.
Moroccan society. Even more, the relationship of Zahra with all surrounding will be the same
of a man. Zahra or more precisely Ahmed was transformed to a strong young man who
neglect his sisters as his father used to do. In return the mother and the seven sisters should
obey and submit to their young brother playing the role proposed on them by religion and
patriarchal society. Indeed Zahra was not really satisfied with the submissiveness of her
sisters despite she well played the role of the controlling brother; it might be because she
recognises how it is difficult to submit to men-decision. “I don’t have to remind you that I’m
a man of order and that if in our house women are inferior to men it’s not because God wishes
it or because the prophets decided it thus, but because the woman accept this fate. So submit,
and live in silence!”(46)

Years passed and Ahmed still in the process of creation of the needed male of the
women house; however, images begun to come to Ahmed’ mind and scramble his thoughts as
he narrates: “At night I went to sleep quickly, because I knew I would be visited by those
images” (24). Later, Zahra knew its sexual evolution as a female and no one could hide that
ugly truth; as being a complete strong man in the view of his family and the whole town,
Ahmed needed to protect this image in a way to protect himself as she was beginning to lose
the faith in herself. Thus, she decided to get married to her cousin Fatima who died after a
while of the marriage and cause much solitude and sadness to Zahra yet no one could
understand this marriage even her, however “he became sad, sadder than before” and decided
to abandon her house in order to find herself, she wants her body to “raise the heavy stones
from that destiny and stand like a new thing on the ground. Ah! The idea of subtracting
myself from that memory brings me joy!” (84)

On her path to the internal relief, she founds more and more horror in the world. She
worked in a circus as a changing-sex dancer, a work that is widely known in Morocco, and
lived there with the owners of the circus Abbas and his mother Malika and here where she got
the name Zahra. Zahra began a new episode in her life where she is regerded as a woman. At
this point, she managed to understand the fact of being a woman when she no more controls
her life after being raped by Abbas “Zahra was no longer Princess of Love, she no longer
danced; she was no longer a man or woman, but a circus animal whom the old woman
exhibited in a cage.”(109)

While supposed to end his story and explained the death of Zahra, the storyteller
disappeared, the audience refuse to accept that open ending thus three of them decided to
meet together to find the ending. One of them believes that Zahra died under the hands of the
circus boss who raped her again which results in both their bloody deaths. The other one
reject the first suggestion and states that he found Ahmed’s diary and recounts how Zahra
returned to the family house, and died there a recluse. The third, a woman, invites the others
to her room and tells how she has taken on the soul of Zahra.

Ben Jelloun chooses to figure Morocco in the body of Zahra who is searching for its
identity that lost in the hand of decision of others. Ben Jelloun knows how colonisation has
shifted a whole history of his country and he may denounce decolonisation that still damage
the country as he thwarts social issues that stand on the way back such as ignorance,
corruption, relationship between government and people.

II.4 Studying Language Use and Style in The Sand Child:

Being highly suggestive, literature can be appealing for many researchers because it is
an authentic model of expressing experience of life through language. Moreover, a written
work contains much of reality treatment through a strong medium which is language. As to
say, language is an important tool in the hand of the author that can crucially communicate
reality. The Ben Jelloun’ Sand Child is certainly one of these works.

By looking closely at what Ben Jelloun is doing stylistically, textual analysis is

presented to be more experimental. Jelloun’s style would mean writing in which something
distinctive as he delves into his characters thoughts and feelings without paying attention to
the flow of prose in which the emphasis is not so much on the external event as much as the
character’s thought.

The cultural ideology that Ben Jelloun attempts to probe into is mainly observed in his
novel The Sand Child through the manifestation of specific cultural norms and practices of
gender. Ben Jelloun employs various forms of language which have certain cultural
components deeply rooted with its cultural context that portray the overwhelmed image of
the story such as his use of Islam’s doctrines as they are stated in the Coran; when he says:

« Si Dieu vous donne la victoire, If God gives you victory,

Personne ne peut vous vaincre » (13) No one can defeat you. (25
 Being fact-based or not, Ben Jelloun’ use of language and literary technique, his style
is regarded as a good model that encapsulates reality. He supplies his writing with certain
techniques that draw the reader's attention. Actually, Ben Jelloun’s choice of words is of high
usage of language as he says:
Et puis tout s’est arrêté, tout s’est figé : l’instant est devenu une chambre, la chambre est
devenue une journée ensoleillée, le temps une vieille carcasse oubliée dans cette caisse en
carton, dans cette caisse il y a de vieilles chaussures dépareillées; une poignée de clous neufs,
une machine à coudre Singer qui tourne toute seule, un gant d’aviateur pris sur un mort, une
araignée fixée dans le fond de la caisse, une lame de rasoir Minora, un œil en verre, et puis
l’inévitable miroir en mauvais état et qui s’est débarrassé de toutes ses images. (58)

And then everything froze; the moment became a room, the room became a sunny day, time a
few old bones left in this card box. In this box are old, odd shoes, a handful of unused nails, a
Singer sewing machine that turns of its own oblivion, an airman’ s glove snatched from a
corpse, a caught spider, a razor blade, a glass eye, and, of course, the inevitable worn old
mirror. (130)

It is clear enough that Ben Jelloun uses a language with a simple syntactical construction
with no clear deviation from the norms of French language; however, choices he makes along
his narration and his strategy of ordering entities are the key element that dissociates his style
of writing.

II.5 Techniques Used by Translator:

The various situational uses of language are often characterised by using the concept
of style. Indeed, a number of translation scholars have attempted to apply various
interpretation of the notion of style to the study of translation. Convincingly, Ben Jeloun is
kind of writers who are more stylists in their writings. In most of his novels, the style of his
prose is really important to him and he prominently enjoys playing with language to disturb
his readers. One of the aspects of his signature styles the building up of description though
realism and the attention to details in a simple identified style. This almost poses no problems
to the translator; the following quote from The Sand Child illustrates the point:

Silently I pursued my delusion, successfully reaching her thoughts as if I myself had

expressed them. That was my mirror, my weakness; that is what haunted me. I heard
her steps in the middle of the night, moving slowly over an old, creaking floor. In fact
it wasn’t a wooden floor, but I imagined the sound and the sound conjured up a floor
made of old wood that had come from some ruined house. (56)

As contrast to what is written in the original text L’Enfant du Sable as follows:

 Je délirais en silence, réussissant à rejoindre ses pensées et même à les reconnaître
comme si elles avaient été émises par moi. C’était la mon miroir, ma hantise et ma
faiblesse. J’entendais ses pas, au fond de la nuit, avancer lentement sur un vieux
plancher qui craquait. En fait ce n’était pas un plancher, mais j’imaginais le bruit et le
bruit dessinait un plancher, et le plancher s’étalait devant moi en bois ancien, le bois
provenait d’une maison en ruine. (26)
By close reading to the previous examples, it is quite clear that the translator transfers
the passage including each detail as if he is using the word for word technique. However, the
word ‘ma hantise’ is rewritten in the form of an expression rather than one single word which
is ‘that is what haunted me’. Consequently, the translator does not bound to a specific
technique; yet he employs what serves the purpose to better translation. Another example
could somehow help to elaborate the translator process alongside with this piece of writing. It
is obvious that Ben Jelloun’ tends to manipulate linguistic and stylistic devices to structure
communication with reality in order to describe such events, that are deeply related to the
general setting of the story, through different utterances. One of the best examples that
cooperate this idea is the following passage:
_Errrrbeh … Errrrbeh … un million … mellioune … talvaza bilalouane … une
télévision en couleurs … une Mercedes … Errrrbeh ! Mille … trois mille … Arba
Alaf … Tourne, tourne la chance … Aioua ! Krista … l” Amourrrre … Il me reste,
baqali Achr’a billetat … Achr’a …. Aioua... Encore... L’Aventurrrre... La roue va
tourner... Mais avant... Avant vous allez voir et entendre... Tferjou we tsatabou
raskoum fe Malika la belle … elle chante et danse Farid El Atrach ! ! Malika !
“Errrrbeh…Errrrbeh…One million.
Moving to the translated text, Sheridan attempts to preserve the same form of this
passage keeping the same cultural and linguistic peculiarities. All these elements are used by
Ben Jelloun and can perform various functions can be found in the translation of Sheridan; i.e.
the language use in Ben Jelloun’s writing may make certain effects and meanings for the
translator who may succeed to grasp some of them.
The discussion that may be sufficient for our purposes is the translator’ consideration
of the phonological variation between French and English. Sheridan understands that these
utterances are purely Moroccan Local Arabic that Ben Jelloun uses in his narration and that
cannot be translated to any language for they dissociate that part of the world. All Sheridan
does is to manipulate the phonemic aspects of this specific language use searching for the
expressive effectiveness of these forms. It is noticeable that Sheridan changes some sounds
from the French phonetic point of view replacing them appropriately with their similar in
English. The following examples may elaborate this point:
“Errrrbeh…Errrrbeh…One million…Melioun…Talvaza bilaluann…One color
television…A Mercedes…Errrrbeh! One thousand…Three thousand…Arba
Alaf…Turn the wheel of fortune…Aiua! Krista…Amourrrre…All that’s left, baqali
Achr’a billetat…Achr’a…Aiua…Again…L’aventurrrre…The wheel will turn…But
before…before you are going to see and hear….Tferju w tsatabu raskum fe, the
beautiful Malika…She sings and dances Farid El Atrash!! Malika!”(90)

The sounds that are transferred are the French sound [w/µ] of the vowel ‘ou’ in the
word ‘Tferjou’; Sheridan used the same word changing the sound of the vowel ‘ou’ to its
equivalent sound in English which is [µ:] with its alphabetic symbol ‘u’. The same case could
be noticed in the ‘Atrach’ that is rewritten by Sheridan as ‘Atrash’ replacing the Frensh
alphabetic symbol ‘ch’ with its appropriate similar English one ‘sh’. The following table
(table 1) demonstrate what has been discussed.
French Alphabetic The phonetic English Alphabetic The phonetic
symbol transcription symbol transcription
ou [w/µ] U [µ:]
ch [ʃ] Sh [ʃ]
Table 1: A Comparison between French and English Alphabetic symbols with their phonetic
transcription.
From the stylistic point of view, Ben Jelloun’ writing is loaded with such unusual
forms of French language mostly aspired from the time and space of his story. The reason
behind could be the desire to break with more conventional traditions to depict the real side of
his writing.
II.6 Comparative Analysis: Original Text versus its Translated Text:

Translator is required to explore, reconstruct and communicate the original work; he

apparently relies on his wealth of knowledge of language to convert words literally from one
language to the other in order to make understandable and appropriate recreation of that work.
More importantly, his collaboration efforts are the key to produce it faithfully and adequately.
Here, Sheridan uses the same utterances of the original text whether because equivalent words
could not be achieved in English or because he simply wanted to share them with the author
and changes might not be useful. The table( table 2) below is selected list of some utterances
that Sheridan adds similar to those of French despite some of them are not commonly used in
English; remembering the linguistic meeting ground of these two languages.

Original Utterances Translated Utterances

Déteste Detest
Charlatan Charlatan
Presence Presence
Perversité Perversion
Adolescence Adolescence
Condoléances Condolence
Femme fatale Femme fatale2
Implacable Implacable
domesticité Domesticity
inconsolable Inconsolable
Poste restante Poste restante3
miniatures Miniatures
transparent Transparent

Table 2: Resemblance of Utterances between Original and Translated Text.

II.6.1 Interpretive Resemblance between both Styles:

Any literary translated work fact based was or not has its own practical and purposeful
considerations mainly the symbiotic relationship between the meaning and its shape. The
disagreement between various approaches to transmit the surface message regarding the
author intended indulgence in his writing. The question raised is whether the orientated
message to the audience by translation might be tied with the intended original one. In fact,
issues encountered by the translator could have, by no means, some effects on the translation
process. Plus, vocabulary over languages with its grammatical functions may cause deficiency
in transmitting stylistic features of a given text. In such case, the examination of Ben Jelloun’s
style as to its translated one by Sheridan was not an easy task since the resemblance seems
approximately the same. While reading Ben Jelloun original text, one can grasp the choices

2
Sheridan writes this utterance in italic form as to demonstrate that it is taking as a reference.
3
This utterance is also written in Italic form
made by him throughout narration to draw setting and audience. By the other hand, reading
Sheridan reproduction, it is quite clear that he creates a sense of striking relevance between
the two works.

Sheridan tends to succeed to reproduce Ben Jelloun’s work respecting all its stylistic
functions. The following table (table 3) may approach the idea by looking at the original
sentences in contrast to the translated version. It is obvious that Sheridan attempts to not dress
up his sentences far from the original used by Jelloun. In addition, Sheridan works to keep the
same syntactical structure as to transfer the complete framework of Ben Jelloun’s writing in
terms of the length of sentences, linguistic register, and morphological construction and
cultural connotations.

Original Sentences Translated Sentences

Je n’ai pas toujours le courage de me I haven’t always been brave enough to betray
trahir, c’est-à-dire de descendre les marches que myself-that is to say, to descend the steps that my
mon destin a tracées et destiny has traced out for me, which are leading
qui me mènent au fond de moi-même dans me to the depths of myself in the unbearable
l’intimité – insoutenable – de intimacy of a truth that cannot be spoken.(29)
la vérité qui ne peut être dite. (15)
Deux vieilles femmes, sèches et grises, le regard Two old women, gray and shriveled, with
funeste, le geste précis et gloomy looks and curt, precise gesture,
bref, accompagnèrent Fatima. (25) accompanied Fatima.(52)
Le plus dur, c’est qu’il ne savait plus a quoi ni à I haven’t always been brave enough to betray
qui il ressemblait. Plus aucun miroir ne lui myself-that is to say, to descend the steps that my
renvoyait d’image. Ils étaient tous éteints. Seule destiny has traced out for me, which are leading
l’obscurité, seules des ténèbres avec quelques me to the depths of myself in the unbearable
hachures de lumière s’imprimaient dans les intimacy of a truth that cannot be spoken.(29)
miroirs. (52)
Table 3: Resemblance of Structures between Original and Translated Text.

Controversially, while comparing between both styles, a number of translated

structures seemed to be different from its equivalent in the original text as the following:

1-C’est le vent de la rébellion qui souffle ! (14)

2-The wind of rebellion blows among you! (28)

1-les ficeler avec un fil transparent, ou mieux les envelopper d’une toile d’araignée, et
m’en débarrasser sur la place du marché. (55)
2-tie them together with a transparent thread or a spider web, and get rid of them in the
market place. (122)
Thought these sentences seem to be similar in many levels, stylistic analysis can
determine the difference in meaning between them. The intended meaning by the author may
differ from one reader to another. However, the translator’s reading is expected for its highest
extensive and intensive level since his task is to transmit the author’s voice heard in every
corner of the novel.
II.6.2 Interpretive Resemblance in Linguistic Properties:
Studding language of both texts and what can be done by both the author and the
translator is certainly achieved through an effective stylistic and linguistic analysis. At many
levels, it is apparently agreed that French and English are related and relevant from different
layers as far as cross linguistics concerns. What Sheridan offers as English translated version
to a French written text is simply the equivalent properties of French language in English in
terms of all linguistic aspects.
At the surface form of the translation, Sheridan transfers the techniques used by Ben
Jelloun in shaping his prose. Speaking on punctuation, it is noticeable that French and English
use nearly the same punctuation marks; yet there some differences in terms of punctuation.
All this can be seen in Sheridan translation. The major difference used by Sheridan is the
quotation marks indicated with the dialogue; there are certainly different from what is found
in French. Unlike English, dashes are commonly used in French as the following example
points out how the translator tries to preserve the same punctuation with only needed changes:
Un jour Ahmed alla voir son père dans son atelier et lui dit :
– Père, comment trouves-tu ma voix ?
– Elle est bien, ni trop grave ni trop aiguë
– Bien, répondit Ahmed. Et ma peau, comment tu la trouves ?
– Ta peau ? Rien de spécial.
– As-tu remarqué que je ne me rase pas tous les jours ?
– Oui, pourquoi ? (17)
One day Ahmed went to see his father in his workshop and said to him,
“Father, what do you think of my voice?”
“It’s fine, neither too deep nor too high-pitched.”
“Good”, Ahmed replied. “And what about my skin?”
“Your skin? Nothing unusual about it.”
“Have you noticed that I don’t shave every day?”
“Yes, why?” (33)
In order to observe the amount of rapprochement of the linguistic aspect of both texts,
discourse analysis has to be conducted. The observance of the lexical cohesion by the
translator is one of his main objectives. For matter of fact, Sheridan may progressively
develop his translation on a correct lexical structure in a way that does not even deviate from
its original equivalent. He probably respects the co-occurrence of the lexical items over the
general discourse. Nevertheless, Sheridan does not neglect the semantic coherence, this
indicates an assumption that Sheridan focuses on the comprehensive meanings and the textual
combination of its connotations.
The major task of the translator is to transmit the overwhelming meaning of the
original and let it open to different interpretations masking his own comprehension. As
stylistics proclaims the proficiency of the grammatical items and their systematic functions on
the general meaning of the text, a theoretical approach has to be taken into consideration to
examine the translator efforts in transferring the meaning embedded in the grammatical
syntax from the original text to its translated equivalent; here is an example that might
enhance this point:
Elle dormait toujours recroquevillée sur elle-même, les dents serrées et les poings fermés entre
ses cuisses. Elle se disait que l’heure de la damnation était arrivée et que ceux et celles a qui,
par la force des choses, elle avait fait du mal allaient se venger. Elle n’avait plus de masque
pour se protéger. Elle était livrée à la brutalité, sans défense. (48)

She still slept curled up, her mouth tightly shut and her fists between her thighs. She told
herself that the hour of damnation had come and that those whom, by the nature of things, she
had hurt would take their revenge. She no longer had a mask to protect herself. She had been
handed over, defenseless, to a brutal world. (107)
One of the major area in which post colonial writing indulge is postcolonial studies,
like many post colonial African writers, Ben Jelloun imbedded themes in language of natural
combination as this novel formulates. Gender issues are proposed and drawn on a certain
cultural framework. Thus, translating such works seems to have many obstacles. Problems
encountered are to depict the same cultural shape of the original setting to different audience
that may not be familiar with it. Ben Jelloun constructs his story on a detailed narration of
every detail of that life and the translator may find himself in front of cultural utterances,
idioms and expression that cannot be translated. The following list gathers the most common
words that the translator puts similar to the original text: aqiqas, Bab El Had, hajii, jellaba and
caftan and so on.
II.7 Risks of Failure in Translation:
Apart from what has been mentioned earlier, the translated text consists some detailed
points that assume how the translation could be more adequate and faithful if the translator
did not omit some of the details. Along the text, Sheridan may achieve the adequacy required
with the original text. However, some points are not included in all the details as the example
below illustrates:
« Voici ce dont Allah vous fait commandement
Au sujet de vos enfants :au mâle.
Portion semblable à celle de deux filles*.., »
*Sourate des femmes, IV, 11-12 (18)
‘God charges you, concerning your children: to the male the like of the portionof two
females….’ (36)
The way this version from the Coran is stated by Ben Jelloun is not the same written
by Sheridan, since he omit the source of this version unlike Ben Jelloun who cares to put the
exact source of this version from the Coran that could be counted as a risk of failure to the
translator. Another example is added to elaborate this idea in which Sheridan omits the last
sentences of the paragraph:
Elle devait penser que j’étais un homosexuel qui avait besoin d’une couverture pour faire taire
les médisances; ou bien un impuissant qui voulait sauver les apparences ! J’aurais ainsi passé
ma vie à jouer avec les apparences, toutes les apparences, même celles qui peut-être étaient la
vérité fabriquaient pour moi un visage vrai, nu, sans masque, sans couche d’argile, sans voile,
un visage ouvert et simplement banal, que rien d’exceptionnel ne distinguait des autres.

She must have thought I was a homosexual, needing a cover to silence the gossips, or impotent
and wanting to keep up appearances. That way Iwould have spent my life playing with
appearances, all appearances-even those that may have been the truth fabricated for me.
Although French and English have a common lexis in many cases that facilitate the
translation, however, the semantic meaning may differ even if the lexis was the same.
Sheridan uses a number of utterances in English the same as French as it is discussed above
these utterances do not serve the meaning and may deviate it from its original equivalence.
II.8 Interpretative Findings:
Literary translation theorists agree that a successful translation is based on the well
communication between the translator and the author, the reproduction of a text starts with an
effective understanding and faithful insight into the original creation. Hence, our aim was to
explore this difficult process and verify its faithfulness, adequacy and relevance. First, reading
both texts was a crucial step in this research. The key element was to search for the stylistic
features of the original text in its translated one; the translator is, by no means, in front of a
piece of art that must not be neglected on the way to reproduce it in another language.

The language use in The Sand Child is characterised with its formality and simplicity,
that the translator, we believe, succeed to reformulate the same language use in English
reaching a similar form and construction regarding the linguistic and cultural aspects of the
work of original.

Away from the form, meaning produced by Sheridan cannot be, by no means; separate
from that created by Ben Jelloun. Plus, Sheridan was able to identify the stylistic relationship
between the linguistic form and its intended meaning. The availability and richness of
vocabulary of the original text can obviously notices in its translated equivalent. All that can
be said is that literary translation in this case was useful as to present such fine work of art to
a vast audience. Moreover, the stylistic analysis of a given text can be a shortcut in
understanding what lies between words choice.

I.9 Conclusion:

The aim of this chapter was to examine how stylistic features of a literary work can be
extensively used by the translator to transmit an equivalent meaning. A theoretical approach
has to be used in order to reach the aim; the work chosen was a novel entitled The Sand Child
written by the Moroccan novelist Tahar Ben Jelloun and translated by the British translator
Alan Sheridan. Depending on the differences between both English and French, our study
attempts to gain insight the translator techniques in this process, in addition, the choices made
by him to offer an equivalent and adequate depiction in contrast to the original text. Our main
hypothesis was that if the translator was able to transfer the lexical syntactical and the other
linguistic and cultural aspects of the original text, then, it can be said that the translator
succeed to transfer the stylistic functional features of its original text.
General Conclusion:

Recently, Theorists began to think that studying language linguistically is

insufficiently beneficial, literary critics also believed that a mere literary analysis easily fall
into dilemma, because the scope of their work deals only with language as a combination of
words to convert message. Some questions whether the language expressed in literature may
carry beyond what is supposed and that affects a generation of thoughts. A systematic wide
range interdisciplinary seemed to find answers in the highly specialized language studies; this
is what stylistics shows as it concerns. The interdisciplinary nature of the field means that
stylistics typically cooperates some acquaintance with linguistics. As far as our research
concerns, we attempted to purposefully relate this discipline with literary translation.

The main research question that leads us to accomplish this research paper was if the
translator ability to transform the style of the original author would implicitly or explicitly
transfer the meaning embedded in those stylistic features of the original text. A comparative
analysis has to be underlined so we can grasp the traces of stylistic aspects in both translated
and original texts. The Sand Child looked the best example for many reasons, mentioned in
paper; we tried to provide a systematic analytic comparison between both styles. Eventually,
we figured out the translator may succeed in reaching a faithful translation where he worked
to keep stylistics prints of its original author; and thus, meaning upon the two texts is well-
communicated. In fact, we believe, stylistics enhances our ability to interpret various
meanings. Stylistics is more than studying language; it shortens distance between us and
authors. A study that really merits much attention and further studies.
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Literary Translated Work:

1) Ben Jelloun, Tahar. L’Enfant de Sable. www.fichier-pdf.fr/2013/03/16/tahar-benjelloun-l-
enfant-de-sable/

2) Sheridan, Alan. The Sand Child. The United States of America: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2000.